Technology leadership in Kuwait’s education sector

Kuwait

Tareq Aloun, chairman of the National Company for Educational Services & Training (NEST), talks to The Energy Year about sourcing advanced technology for education and executive training and establishing platforms for professional development in Kuwait. NEST is an educational institution owned by NTEC, a subsidiary of the Kuwait Investment Authority, focused on technology and knowledge transfer in Kuwait and the GCC.

How would you characterise Kuwait’s educational sector at the moment?
Kuwait’s educational sector is transforming. For example, digital devices now play a big role, and until very recently, they didn’t. We need to keep up with changes occurring at a fast pace, and that is where our teams at NEST dedicate their efforts.
We arrange world-class collaborations and get the best technologies, as we’re doing in AI, where we have partnered with world-class providers from the US, such as Stallion AI. We represent these new technologies in Kuwait and promote their offerings to the community.

What technologies are you looking at to augment education and training and drive best practices?
One example is our partnership with EON Reality, a California-based company specialising in VR [virtual reality] and AR [augmented reality] education platforms powered by AI. We’re their exclusive representatives in the GCC. Their technology has been used at KOC and KNPC to provide health and safety training to staff by immersing them in virtual 3D environments.
Safety is paramount in the oil and gas industry, and we are also collaborating with the R&D teams at KOC and KNPC to develop other solutions. What sets EON Reality’s platform apart is its accessibility, as it can be used with any device and generate AI-powered immersive content in seconds without the need for elaborate headsets.
We have been working with the company for seven years, which reflects our inclination towards long-term collaborations. We’re currently engaged in projects with them in Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and exploring opportunities in Morocco.
While the technology is a great fit for safety training in the oil and gas sector, it is versatile and can be tailored to other applications. For example, we are providing visual training for the staff of a prominent domestic bank and developing ways to enhance their customers’ experiences through virtual banking services.

What are the key takeaways from your K-LEAD leadership development project?
K-LEAD was an initiative for oil sector leaders that spanned five years and involved the top 300 K-company executives. The goal was to standardise executive-level learning and facilitate engagement among the K companies. It was a notable success and we have extended it beyond the K-companies to the rest of Kuwait, in the form of NLI, our National Leadership Institute.
Importantly, the project made it easier for companies to source our training directly. Unlike before, when they might have had to initiate a tender for multi-year training programmes, now they can simply select the specific training they need, whether it’s in soft skills, AI, digital transformation or marketing. Our Leadership Institute has a training bank that offers open enrollment in a wide range of programmes for leadership development, including custom options.

How do you decide the content of the Leadership Institute programmes?
In 2024, the Leadership Institute is offering 24 units that cater to professionals across various sectors who are seeking learning opportunities and broader professional interaction. Beyond that, we’ll keep expanding and updating and repeating high-demand courses such as artificial intelligence and IoT, which are especially sought after in the oil and gas sector. Digitalisation, in general, is of interest not only in oil and gas but also in power and water treatment, and in various ministries. As a government agency, we’re well-positioned to serve across various sectors, and organisations can easily send their staff to our website below for registration.

How does your organisation plan to expand its network of partnerships, both in Kuwait and internationally?
Our domestic partnerships include banks, telecoms and all the K-companies, with KPC, KOC and KNPC being the primary ones. Internationally, we collaborate with prestigious universities in Europe and the UK. Moving forward, we are particularly interested in collaborating with R&D institutions within the oil and gas sector and introducing high-quality training specifically for the logistics sector to support Kuwait’s development as a logistics hub.
We’ll continue targeting top educational institutions and companies. Leadership training transcends industry boundaries, and we encourage cross-pollination. By mixing participants from different sectors in our programmes and conferences, we create an environment that fosters interactive education and micro-learning experiences.
As a company, our focus is not only on returns but also on social responsibility. Our goal is to provide education and training opportunities and to improve access to instruction in the region. We collaborate with entities such as the Kuwait Youth Public Authority to nurture entrepreneurship and help diversify the country’s economy away from oil revenues. As the needs of learners evolve, we will adapt our training methods.

What are NEST’s objectives for the next 12 months?
We want to reinforce education at all levels and continue integrating VR technology. We’ve established a vocational training centre and online training portals for professionals. Conferences will remain one of our key activities. Our overarching goal is to establish centres of excellence for learning, including special needs, vocational training and leadership development.
One of our target sectors is aviation, which is characterised by rigorous training and strict certification processes. We expect that AR and VR technologies can find useful applications in that context.
As we consolidate our efforts, we’re attaining greater stability and wish to fortify existing partnerships, while keeping our options open to forge new ones that can contribute to our growth. We’re in the process of establishing our university in collaboration with a renowned UK institution aiming to develop a multifaceted structure that incorporates innovative teaching methods.

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